How I Use Rocketbook: A Review

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Rocketbook (RB) is a “smart”, reusable notebook. I decided to try one out because I was tired of taking pictures of my “traditional” paper notebooks and having to flip back through a bunch of junk pages to find something I wrote last week. I purchased the Exectutive size (6″x8.8″) from Amazon. I am happy about this size as it is portable and provides enough room for the majority of things I need to write.

I’ve found the RB very useful, and it’s reduced my “inbox processing” overhead (more on that here). Here are a few tips I use to make RB more efficient.

  • Make it easy to carry notebook + pens with you, and get a pack of different colored pens.
  • Organize notebook pages into a few general sections like “notes”, “meetings”, and ” to-dos “
  • Cleaning with water is fairly easy if you have a process.
    1. Each page needs to be cleaned and dried before moving on so damp/wet pages are not closed on each other.
    2. Make sure everything you need is scanned before you start cleaning.
    3. Batch clean the notebook every 1-2 weeks depending on your usage . Cleaning only a few pages is inefficient
    4. The cloth needs somewhere to dry after cleaning.

Some thoughts I noted down (in my RB) about pros and cons of the RB are as follows:

Pros

  • Easier than normal notebook because it is thinner. Useless info can be erased between pages, so it is easier to flip through and find what you need.
  • It is easier to have one notebook, which is a compounding effect.
  • Rocketbook’s Optical Character Recognition (OCR) is decent, and does help save time if you want to quickly convert your writing to text. Processing notes from a tablet would not be significantly faster than with RB because most of the time is spent categorizing, typing, etc.
  • Writing is fine. It is slightly easier for me to write/draw straight lines here vs. paper.
  • I do seem to use this more than paper. Could just be the novelty/excitement of new product … It is convenient though. (Four months later this still holds true for the most part.)

Cons

  • Drying time is not bad. I do jump around a bit, so it is a little annoying.
  • If your note is something that is not convertible to text (like a spider graph, mock figure, etc.), you cannot go back and edit it once erased.
  • This notebook makes me want the OneNote functionality of dragging text around while taking notes.